Safe

A multi media performance made for the stage, Safe is part plane crash, part theatre, part rock concert.

I´m on my way now…
I´ve left everything behind, everything.
I´ve left my boyfriend, my car, my flat, my cat.
All my records, my books, my shoes…
and my shower curtain.
And there are these people in front of me, smiling.
And they are so beautiful.
Their hair, it´s so silky… and their skin, so soft and smooth.
And their fingernails… their nails are just perfect.
These people really are angels, not from this world.
And somehow – I don´t know why, they make me feel really… really…
safe.

In the dim glow of showbiz lighting, a man dressed as a bunny rabbit makes his way across the crash site. Among the debris he discovers the corpses of a strangely familiar band you’ve never heard of before. Rising from the dead they’re here to give you what you came for; full blooded rock and roll…..if only they’d learned to play their instruments. Using every rock cliché they can muster, Gob Squad’s attempts to rock are thwarted by arguments, powercuts and stagefright. In a flowing collage of band interviews, classic rock anthems and anecdotes, the group come to terms with the fact that it is too late for dreaming.

Where: a stage

Who: 6 wannabes; a comic pilot; a reassuring stewardess; a beauty queen “Miss Catastrophe” (several costume changes); a cocktail shaking barman; a drummer who has lost her sense of rhythm; a man in a bunny costume, faking a guitar solo; a man discovering the meaning of rock; 6 air stewards playing air guitars

What: 1 Electric Guitar, 1 Bass, 1 Drum kit, 1 Synthesizer, 2 verses, 1 chorus of “We Will Rock You”, 2 verses, 2 choruses of “Rocking All Over The World”, 2 choruses, 2 verses of “Über den Wolken” (Heavy Metal version), 2 choruses, 2 verses of “I Believe I Can Fly”; 1 bar with various alcoholic drinks, cocktail umbrellas; semicircular steps that light up when you step on them, a frame of showbiz lights; 1 big projection screen, a continuous projected backdrop (free fall, disaster movie montages, fireworks, tropical beaches, anxious Bunnies, applauding crowds, open hearts and explosions); 1 energetic dance routine; 40 fake plastic flowers placed under audience seats to throw on stage; 3 staged “band deaths”; 1 Hal Hartley film quote; model cars, houses, farmyard animals, people and planes; 3 cans of hairspray, stupid sunglasses, black PVC trousers and miniskirt, 1 Hawaiian shirt, 1 brown velvet suit, 1 dress which looks like a garden

How long: 75 minutes

First Performance: 3. March 1999 (Kampnagel, Hamburg)